How do I fit assorted photos into a 4" x 6" space.

PJ
Posted By
Peter Jason
Sep 17, 2004
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497
Replies
6
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Closed
I have many very old photos scanned onto my computer.

The length/breadth ratios of these photos varies by a very great amount.

I want to reformat these in Photoshop so that they will all print completely into a 4" x 6" postcard print.

It does not matter if a large border is introduced on to the print, just so long as it fits completely into the 4" x 6" space.

Commercial photo printers tend to truncate edges of photos that do fit completely into the 4" x 6" space, and this is no good because some descriptions therefore are chopped off.

I have tried to do all this by using the Photoshop "Canvas Size" facility to make a space of 4" x 6" and then using the Select and Transform to scale to the canvas borders.

This works, but there is a proportionate increase in file size to unacceptable levels.

Is there some better way to do this, say by using a 4/6 ratio so that pPhotoshop does it automatically?

Please help, Peter.
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R
Ryadia
Sep 17, 2004
Peter Jason wrote:
I have many very old photos scanned onto my computer.

The length/breadth ratios of these photos varies by a very great amount.
I want to reformat these in Photoshop so that they will all print completely into a 4" x 6" postcard print.

It does not matter if a large border is introduced on to the print, just so long as it fits completely into the 4" x 6" space.
Commercial photo printers tend to truncate edges of photos that do fit completely into the 4" x 6" space, and this is no good because some descriptions therefore are chopped off.

I have tried to do all this by using the Photoshop "Canvas Size" facility to make a space of 4" x 6" and then using the Select and Transform to scale to the canvas borders.

This works, but there is a proportionate increase in file size to unacceptable levels.

Is there some better way to do this, say by using a 4/6 ratio so that pPhotoshop does it automatically?

Please help, Peter.
The easiest way is to "print with preview" and choose "fit to page" if you are printing onto 6×4 picture paper.

Ryadia
PJ
Peter Jason
Sep 18, 2004
"Ryadia" wrote in message
Peter Jason wrote:
I have many very old photos scanned onto my computer.

The length/breadth ratios of these photos varies by a very great amount.
I want to reformat these in Photoshop so that they will all print
completely
into a 4" x 6" postcard print.

It does not matter if a large border is introduced on to the print, just
so
long as it fits completely into the 4" x 6" space.
Commercial photo printers tend to truncate edges of photos that do fit completely into the 4" x 6" space, and this is no good because some descriptions therefore are chopped off.

I have tried to do all this by using the Photoshop "Canvas Size"
facility to
make a space of 4" x 6" and then using the Select and Transform to scale
to
the canvas borders.

This works, but there is a proportionate increase in file size to unacceptable levels.

Is there some better way to do this, say by using a 4/6 ratio so that pPhotoshop does it automatically?

Please help, Peter.
The easiest way is to "print with preview" and choose "fit to page" if you are printing onto 6×4 picture paper.

Ryadia

True, but the commercial photo printer does not seem to have this facility.

I have now done something in Photoshop by going to the "Canvas Size" box and adjusting the canvas dimensions so that they are at a ratio of 6/4 or 4/6, that is 1.5.

EG Say a photo has a dimension of 4.2" x 4.8" in the "Canvas Size" box, then all I do is multiply the 4.2 by 1.5 = 6.3.

Then I replace the 4.8 by the 6.3 so giving new canvas dimensions of 4.2" x
6.3" which is
in the ratio of 1.5. Of course blank borders appear on either side of the photo but at least I will get the whole photo in the printout without any truncating.

Do you know if there is any way to automate this procedure in Photoshop?
TD
The Doormouse
Sep 18, 2004
"Peter Jason" wrote:

Do you know if there is any way to automate this procedure in Photoshop?

There is a whole chapter on automation in the Photoshop manual.

The Doormouse

—
The Doormouse cannot be reached by e-mail without her permission.
PJ
Peter Jason
Sep 18, 2004
"The Doormouse" wrote in message
"Peter Jason" wrote:

Do you know if there is any way to automate this procedure in Photoshop?

There is a whole chapter on automation in the Photoshop manual.
The Doormouse

—
The Doormouse cannot be reached by e-mail without her permission.

It is so tedious to hack thru all the fine print.
TD
The Doormouse
Sep 18, 2004
"Peter Jason" wrote:
It is so tedious to hack thru all the fine print.

It is worth it if you intend to automate Photoshop.

The Doormouse

—
The Doormouse cannot be reached by e-mail without her permission.
R
Ryadia_
Sep 18, 2004
Peter Jason wrote:
"The Doormouse" wrote in message

"Peter Jason" wrote:

Do you know if there is any way to automate this procedure in Photoshop?

There is a whole chapter on automation in the Photoshop manual.
The Doormouse

—
The Doormouse cannot be reached by e-mail without her permission.

It is so tedious to hack thru all the fine print.
If you know how to record a macro in MS word, then you know how to create a droplet in Photoshop. If you carry out the resize while recording the process as a droplet, when you are finished and it is saved to your desktop, you can drag and drop an individual image or a whole directory of images onto the droplet and it will do the whole task for you.

This is an excellent way to process a lot of images to one common feature. As you develop the skill of droplet creation, you’ll discover that a whole host of things you normally do with every image… I.E. Sharpening, resizing, cropping from 35mm format to traditional etc can all be done in one hit with a droplet.

Despite your obvious impatience, the Doormouse gave you the right advise. Cruder people than me would tell you to RTFM.

Ryadia

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